System and method for generation and dissemination of anonymized identifier data

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for allowing a merchant to provide a consumer with a real-time, personalized offer to execute a consumer transaction in response to evaluating that consumer&#39;s credential information. The consumer provides the credential information while, or just before, the consumer selects items to purchase from the website. The credential information provided by the consumer can be a compilation of different information associated with the consumer and may take the form of a score. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a merchant receives credential information relating to a consumer, while the consumer is at that merchant&#39;s website. The merchant evaluates the credential information while the consumer remains at the website and makes a real-time personalized offer of goods, services or pricing based at least in part on that evaluation.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/934,578, filed Nov. 2, 2007, and issued Jul. 28, 2020, asU.S. Pat. No. 10,726,440, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXECUTINGCONSUMER TRANSACTIONS BASED ON CREDENTIAL INFORMATION RELATING TO THECONSUMER” (Attorney Docket No. FAIR.P0005US), the disclosures of whichare incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to consumer transactions. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to consumer transactionswhere credential information relating to the consumer affects the termsof the transaction itself.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A consumer's credential information, such as indicators of financialresponsibility, financial capacity, financial affluence, financial risk,etc., affect what products or services a consumer is likely to purchase,and this in turn affects what offers the merchant should offer in thefirst place. For instance, a consumer with low financial risk and highfinancial affluence credentials would be more willing to consider a moreexpensive set of products than would a consumer with high debt andlittle ability to pay for the products or services. Merchants,particularly online merchants, are limited in their ability to makepersonalized, real-time offers to specific groups of consumers. Thislimitation arises from the fact that merchants usually cannot ascertainfinancial credential information relating to the consumer until after atransaction is complete.

When a consumer visits a merchant's website, e.g., amazon.com, thatmerchant cannot ascertain credential information relating to theconsumer and thus, the merchant is unable to distinguish the financialcapacity of one consumer from the financial capacity of anotherconsumer. As a result, online merchants must provide the same product orservice offerings to every consumer, regardless of the financial statusof that consumer.

Currently, an online merchant must infer from information, such as theweb sites recently visited by the consumer (e.g., as determined bycookies placed on the computer) or demographic information provided bythe consumer, and the like, to predict what a consumer's financialcredentials might be. As a result, an online merchant is forced to inferthat a consumer has a given purchase capacity. In any event, thismethodology is somewhat unreliable because the information associatedwith the consumer is not validated. For example, the consumer couldprovide false demographic or financial information in response to aquestion. This mechanism is especially inaccurate when more that oneindividual uses the computer within a household. This presents a lessthan ideal method of effectively targeting preferred consumer groups.

By way of analogy, suppose a potential buyer visits a car dealership.The car salesperson, by observation, determines that the potential buyerholds title to a very expensive car. By observing the potential buyer'stitle to the car, the salesperson is able to view validated informationthat provides an indication of that consumer's purchasing capacity.Accordingly, the salesperson can make decisions as to the likelihoodthat that particular purchaser will potentially buy one car overanother. Thus the sales pitch and sales offers can be tailored to theindividual consumer. In this example, the salesperson would be motivatedto make personalized offers to preferred consumers based upon aperception the salesperson has of the customer. That is, the potentialbuyer's car is an indication of that buyer's financial capacity. Giventhis information, the car salesperson increases the likelihood ofacquiring a preferred customer while reducing the likelihood ofacquiring a less profitable customer, or even worse, wasting timedealing with a consumer that will not financially qualify to make apurchase in the first place.

The situation described above does not readily apply to the virtualworld of on-line shopping. That is, online merchants cannot readilyascertain validated credential information relating to consumersvisiting its website. As such, an online merchant must provide the sameoffers and present the same merchandise or service to every potentialconsumer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Systems and methods are provided for allowing a merchant to provide aconsumer with a real-time, personalized offer to execute a consumertransaction. The offer is made in response to evaluating that consumer'svalidated credential information, which is provided to the merchant bythe consumer. The consumer provides the validated credential informationwhile, or just before, the consumer selects items to purchase from themerchant. The validated credential information provided by the consumercan be a compilation of different information associated with theconsumer, and may take the form of a score.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a merchantreceives validated credential information relating to a consumer whilethe consumer is at that merchant's website. The merchant evaluates thevalidated credential information while the consumer remains at thewebsite and makes a real-time personalized offer of goods, services, orpricing based at least in part on that evaluation. According to theembodiment, the personalized offer could include offering otherwiseunavailable products or changing the layout of the website itself.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technicaladvantages of the present invention in order that the detaileddescription of the invention that follows may be better understood.Additional features and advantages of the invention will be describedhereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. Itshould be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conceptionand specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis formodifying or designing other structures for carrying out the samepurposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by thoseskilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart fromthe spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appendedclaims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic ofthe invention, both as to its organization and method of operation,together with further objects and advantages will be better understoodfrom the following description when considered in connection with theaccompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, thateach of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration anddescription only and is not intended as a definition of the limits ofthe present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference isnow made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts a system according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 depicts a method of operating the system shown in FIG. 1according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 depicts a decision making process executed by a merchantaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 depicts a system, such as system 100, for executing a consumertransaction according to an embodiment of the present invention.Consumer 102, by utilizing personal computer 104, is able to accessvarious websites over network 106. Network 106 can be an internetnetwork having a number of configurations comprising LAN, WAN, T1, T3,and DSL segments, etc.

User 102 navigates to vendor site 108 to obtain digital certificate 110.As will be discussed in greater detail, digital certificate 110 containscredential information relating to consumer 102 and is utilized toeffectuate future consumer transactions where consumer 102 receivesspecial or personalized offers. Vendor site 108 can be a number of websites, e.g., myfico.com, that are envisioned as being able to provideand validate credential information to be utilized by consumer 102 inexchange for a personalized offer. Information contained in digitalcertificate 110 can represent a compilation of different types ofinformation, and can include of a score and can be stored, in digitalencrypted format, on computer 104. Notably, digital certificate iseffective insomuch as the information contained therein has beenverified by a third party. As a result, a merchant can rely on thenotion that the information is accurate when making a personalized offerbased on that information.

It should be appreciated that consumer 102 can receive digitalcertificate 110 in the form of a card from vendor site 108. It shouldalso be appreciated that consumer 102 can copy digital certificate 110from computer 104 to a portable medium, such as to a flash memory card.According to such embodiments, consumer 102 is able to carry digitalcertificate 110 with him/her when he/she visits a store. In suchsituations, the consumer will manually provide digital certificate 110to a merchant.

In one embodiment, merchant 112 visits vendor site 108 to obtainmembership 114. Merchant 112 uses membership 114 to participate in aprogram that allows merchant 112 to make real-time, personalized offersto consumers based on consumer credential information. As such,membership 114 may involve merchant 112 downloading software orobtaining a subscription, and the like. In any event, once merchant 112obtains membership 114, merchant 112 can advertise to consumers that itmakes offers based upon consumer credential information. This, ofcourse, prompts a consumer to submit credential information in exchangefor a personalized offer.

Consumer 102 visits a website associated with merchant 112 and can beginselecting items for purchase. While doing so, consumer 102 notices thatmerchant 112 has obtained membership 114 and participates in the programdescribed above. Accordingly, consumer 102 submits digital certificate110 to merchant 112, thereby providing merchant 112 with his/hercredential information. As will be discussed further, in the embodimentbeing discussed merchant 112 is not able to ascertain personal identityinformation simply because consumer 102 provides digital certificate 110to merchant 112. That is, merchant 112 cannot determine the personalidentity of consumer 102 at this point. Instead, merchant 112 can onlyascertain a financial credential score associated with that consumer.

Once merchant 112 receives the credential information of consumer 102,it executes a decision-making process to determine what personalizedoffers, goods or services, if any, are to be made to that consumer. Asdescribed below, the decision-making process executed by merchant 112 ishighly unique and will depend on each merchant's specific business plan.Once the decision-making process is complete, merchant 112 makes apersonalized offer to consumer 102.

The extent to which the offer is personalized, and the manner in whichthe offer is personalized may vary widely. For example, merchant 112might make a subtle change, such as simply offering a price discount. Onthe other hand, merchant 112 might highly personalize an offer by, forexample, changing the website layout, offering products that were nototherwise available, offering special payment plans, presentingmembership opportunities, and the like. For instance, merchant 112 mightevaluate the consumer's credential information and determine thatconsumer 102 is most interested in products having a relatively highprice point. In such case, merchant 112 would present those productshaving a higher price-point than those originally presented. Of course,this is possible as the consumer credential information will oftenprovide an indication of a consumer's ability to pay for products havinga high (or low) price point, or in other words, an indication of aconsumer's immediate ability and or inclination to pay for premiumproducts or services. The indication may be represented by informationsuch as the consumer's purchase history, credit history, financialcapacity, and the like. Further, such information can be combined withother currently available information such as the consumer's residence,occupation, shopping preferences, etc.

It should be appreciated that consumer 102 is not required to selectitems for purchase from merchant 112 online. Rather, consumer 102 canvisit a store associated with merchant 112 and, as discussed earlier,provide a digital certificate manually. Likewise, merchant 112 can makea personalized offer to consumer 102 on a face-to-face basis.

Turning to FIG. 2, a method for executing consumer transactionsaccording to an embodiment of the present invention is depicted asmethod 200. Process 201 allows a consumer to acquire a digitalcertificate to be used in effectuating future transactions. A consumercan obtain a digital certificate in a number of ways via the internet orother means known in the art. Embodiments are envisioned where aconsumer can visit myfico.com and purchase a FICO webscore or aderivation thereof, of course a number of websites may be available toprovide a digital certificate.

Process 202 returns to the consumer an encrypted, secure digitalcertificate for storage, for example, on the consumer's computer. Thedigital certificate may contain various combinations of informationrelating to the consumer. According to the shown embodiment, the digitalcertificate contains a unique identifier that is specific to theconsumer, a time stamp, and a partial credit card number of one or morecredit cards. As will be discussed hereinafter, the partial credit cardnumbers help the merchant in verifying the consumer's identity while atransaction is being executed. The unique identifier serves to associatethe digital certificate with the consumer. However, the uniqueidentifier does not identify the consumer. That is, one cannot determinethe personal identity of the consumer simply by knowing the uniqueidentifier.

Further, the digital certificate may contain a score based on a numberof combinations of information associated with the consumer. Accordingto the shown embodiment, the score comprises information that indicatesthe consumer's immediate ability to pay for products within a particularprice-point range. That is, the score may provide a very strongindication that a consumer is immediately able to pay for relativelyexpensive products. Likewise, the score may represent a combination ofqualities such as consumer residence, vehicle ownership, occupation,purchase history, shopping preferences, and the like. In other cases,the score may be an indication of the level of risk that a consumerpresents, e.g., consumer financial risk, credit history, credit score,net worth, income tax information, and the like. Also, in some cases thedigital certificate may contain more than one score, where the scorescan be updated to reflect changes in relevant information relating tothe consumer, i.e., updates may reflect changes in the consumer'sfinancial capacity. While the composition of each score contained in thedigital certificate may be unique to other scores, each score is meantto provide utility to a merchant in making better decisions relating tooffers provided to the consumer. In any event, the score is advantageousas the information represented therein is validated information. Forinstance, the information is not provided by the consumer himself, butan unbiased third party.

The specific score, and its components, can be calculated using, forexample, propriety algorithms and are likely to vary according to theapplications for which the consumer will use the digital certificate.The digital certificate may contain more or less than the informationdescribed above, depending on the particular transactions to be executedby the consumer.

The digital certificate is stored so that it can be retrieved whenneeded to provide credential information to merchants at a later time.In some cases, the digital certificate can be stored on a portablestorage media, e.g., a smart media card, mobile phone, orcredit/debit-type card. In such case, a consumer could swipe the cardonline where needed or use the stored data when visiting a store,thereby informing a merchant as to his/her credential information. Also,a consumer's digital certificate could be transferred to a third party.The third party would be responsible for maintaining the consumer'sdigital certificate so that it can be retrieved when needed to execute atransaction.

At step 203 a merchant enrolls in a program that allows that merchant toutilize the consumer's digital certificate. Step 203 may occur before,after, or during steps 201 and 202. Also, step 203 may includedownloading software that enables the merchant to utilize the digitalcertificate and/or communicate with a third party that maintains theconsumer's digital certificate. Step 206 may also involve obtaining asubscription, executing a licensing agreement, and the like.Accordingly, the merchant is able to read the encrypted digitalcertificate and utilize the credential information relating to theconsumer.

Process 204 allows a consumer to visit a merchant's website and presenthis/her credentials. The online merchant could provide a mechanism tonotify online consumers that it participates in the program or theconsumer could simply try to use his/her credentials. For example, theonline merchant may display a symbol or advertisement that recites, forexample, “we read the FICO web score to provide personalized offersbased on the score.” Of course, as will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, any number of mechanisms can be employed to let theconsumer know the online merchant participates in the program.

Once the consumer submits his/her credential information to themerchant, the merchant provides under the control of process 205 specialincentives, goods and/or services that may not otherwise be provided. Aspreviously mentioned, the level of personalization of the offer willdepend on the credential information itself and/or the merchant'sbusiness model. That is, the level of personalization could be subtle,e.g., a custom payment plan, or very significant, e.g., presentation ofa new product layout. Analogously, where a consumer visits a merchant,e.g., at a shopping mall, a consumer can visit the store and manuallyprovide his/her digital certificate. As mentioned above, a consumercould provide his/her credential information by a number of means,including swiping a card having the information, inserting a storagemedia into a reader, placing a phone call, etc. In response, a merchantcould direct the consumer to special offers that he/she qualifies for inview of this credential information.

When the consumer provides the certificate, the online merchant readsthe certificate, examines the merchant's policies or some set ofpredetermined standards, and returns a personalized, real-time offer tothat consumer. As mentioned, examples of such real time, personalizedoffers are price discounts, a particular payment plan, opportunities topurchase otherwise unavailable products or services, offers ofmembership to preferred groups, etc. Of course, the metrics used toclassify a consumer's credentials as good, bad, average, etc. can bedifferent, depending upon the “target consumer” of the online merchant.

In some cases, the merchant may not need the certificate untilcheck-out. However, there is no requirement that a merchant wait until aconsumer is ready to check out before making a personalized offer. Forinstance, the merchant can read a potential consumer's credentialinformation before the consumer actually moves to check out selecteditems. In such case, the online merchant can tailor the websiteaccording to the credential information by, for example, presenting theconsumer with more expensive items, a broader range of items, a widerrange of purchasing options, or may be presented with a distinct layout.As can be easily seen, a merchant store owner could similarly present acustomized scheme to a visiting consumer. The personalized offer is madein real-time so that the transaction can continue in seamless fashion.Moreover, a consumer is free to delete or block access to the digitalcertificate to prevent a merchant from having access thereto.

As mentioned above, a consumer's digital certificate contains a uniqueidentifier that is associated with that consumer. However, one cannotdetermine the personal identity of the potential consumer. As such, themerchant cannot ascertain personalized information relating to theconsumer, i.e., consumer name, address, occupation, etc. until thetransaction is complete. At the moment the digital certificate is read,the consumer remains anonymous. This feature protects the consumer'sprivacy and avoids sharing sensitive information.

FIG. 3 depicts a decision making process executed by a merchantaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. In the preferredembodiment, the merchant executes decision-making process 300 inresponse to an attempt by a consumer to submit credential information.Alternatively, process 300 may automatically begin where a merchantautomatically searches for, and then reads, an available digitalcertificate associated with the visiting consumer. Process 301determines if the consumer has submitted a valid digital certificate. Ifmerchant cannot determine that the submitted digital certificate isvalid, or cannot otherwise read the digital certificate, then process302 determines whether a subsequent attempt is being made. Process 303prompts consumer to resubmit the digital certificate. If the secondattempt is unsuccessful, process 304 to handles the consumer, perhaps bydirecting the consumer to an operator.

When a valid certificate is reviewed, process 305 causes the merchant toevaluate the validated credential information. The evaluation mayinvolve comparing the credential information to the merchant's policiesor some other metric. Process 306 determines whether the consumerqualifies for a personal offer in view of the evaluation performed byprocess 306. If the consumer does not qualify, process 307 notifiesconsumer to continue shopping as usual.

However, if the consumer does qualify for a personal offer, process 308determines what type of personalized offer should be provided. By way ofexample, the merchant can offer a price discount under control ofprocess 309, or offer a wider range of products or services via process310, or offer a preferred membership via process 311.

According to embodiments disclosed herein, consumers can utilizecredential information, compiled in the form of a score, to executepreferred, real-time transactions. Real-time generally means the timeduring which a consumer visits a merchant's website or visits amerchant's store. Although real time includes instantaneoustransactions, it is not limited to such.

Consumers can use good credentials, e.g., good creditworthiness, tostrike better bargains and extend their credentials to be used asleverage in a wide-range of different transactions. Also, merchants canview a consumer's validated credential information before deciding whatoffers to provide to that consumer. By utilizing systems and methodsdescribed herein, a merchant can make its website or store “customercentric” by providing unique offers based upon a consumer's credentialinformation. Merchants are also able to collect promotional responsedata and determine optimal pricing points and response behavior ofdifferent segments of consumers.

Although the present invention and its advantages have been described indetail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions andalterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, thescope of the present application is not intended to be limited to theparticular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, compositionof matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. Asone of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from thedisclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture,compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing orlater to be developed that perform substantially the same function orachieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodimentsdescribed herein may be utilized according to the present invention.Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within theirscope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter,means, methods, or steps.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method to facilitate transfer of personal data of anindividual to another party, the method comprising: initiating, by oneor more processors, a request for anonymized identifier data; receiving,by the one or more processors, the anonymized identifier data from afirst device, where the anonymized identifier data includes a uniqueidentifier corresponding to the individual and configured to maintain ananonymity of the individual; and receiving, by the one or moreprocessors and based on transmission of the personal data to a seconddevice, digital media based on the personal data.
 3. The method of claim2, where the anonymized identifier data comprises a digital certificate,and where the digital certificate includes validated personalinformation corresponding to the individual.
 4. The method of claim 3,where the validated personal information comprises a purchase history ofthe individual and shopping preferences of the individual, and where thedigital certificate is encrypted.
 5. The method of claim 2, where seconddevice comprises a computer system associated with a merchant store, andwhere the anonymized identifier data is encrypted when received from thefirst device.
 6. The method of claim 5, where the digital mediaindicates at least one of discounts associated with one or more productsand customized offers for merchandise.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherethe initiating the request for the anonymized identifier data comprisesaccessing a website hosted by the first device.
 8. The method of claim2, further comprising: receiving a prompt, from the second deviceassociated with a merchant store, to connect a portable storage mediumto the second device, where the portable storage medium is configured tosubmit the anonymized identifier data to the second device in exchangefor the digital media; and transferring, from the portable storagemedium to the second device, the anonymized identifier data, where theanonymized identifier data corresponds to a digital certificate, wherethe digital certificate includes validated personal data of theindividual, and where the second device is configured to use thevalidated personal data to determine a purchasing capacity correspondingto the individual.
 9. A device to facilitate transfer of personal dataof an individual to another party, the device comprising: at least oneprocessor; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor, where theat least one processor is configured to: initiate acquisition ofanonymized identifier data; receive the anonymized identifier data froma first device, where the anonymized identifier data includes a uniqueidentifier corresponding to the individual and configured to maintain ananonymity of the individual; and receive, based on transmission of thepersonal data to a second device, digital media based on the personaldata.
 10. The device of claim 9, where the personal data comprisesinformation corresponding to the individual's residence, occupation,purchase history, shopping preferences, credit history, net worth,income tax information, or a combination thereof.
 11. The device ofclaim 9, where the at least one processor is configured to initiate theacquisition of the anonymized identifier data by accessing a websitehosted by the first device.
 12. The device of claim 9, where theanonymized identifier data corresponds to a digital certificate, andwhere the unique identifier corresponds to a partial credit card number.13. The device of claim 12, where the digital certificate includes dataindicative of a purchasing capacity of the individual.
 14. The device ofclaim 9, where the at least one processor is further configured totransfer, from a portable storage medium to the second device, theanonymized identifier data, and where the anonymized identifier datacorresponds to a digital certificate.
 15. The device of claim 14, wherethe at least one processor is further configured to receive, from thesecond device, a prompt to connect a portable storage medium to thesecond device, where the portable storage medium is configured to submitthe anonymized identifier data to the second device in exchange for thedigital media, where the second device comprises a computing deviceassociated with a merchant store, and where the digital mediacorresponds to a personalized communication from the merchant store. 16.The device of claim 15, where the digital certificate includes validatedpersonal data of the individual, and where the second device isconfigured to use the validated personal data to determine an analyticscore or credit worthiness corresponding to the individual.
 17. A methodto facilitate transfer of personal data of an individual to anotherparty, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors froma user device associated with the individual, a request to acquireanonymized identifier data; and initiating transmission, by the one ormore processors, of the anonymized identifier data to the user device,where the anonymized identifier data includes a unique identifiercorresponding to the individual and configured to maintain an anonymityof the individual, and where transmission, to the user device, ofdigital media is enabled based on receipt of the personal data of theindividual by the one or more processors.
 18. The method of claim 17,the method further comprising receiving, by the one or more processors,the personal data of the individual, where the anonymized identifierdata corresponds to a digital certificate, and where the digitalcertificate includes validated personal data of the individual.
 19. Themethod of claim 18, where the receiving the personal data of theindividual comprises receiving the personal data of the individual froma plurality of second devices.
 20. The method of claim 17, where thedigital media comprises personalized offers presented to the user deviceby a merchant device, and where the transmission, to the user device, ofthe digital media is enabled based on transfer of validated personaldata included in the anonymized identifier data to the merchant device.21. The method of claim 20, where the personalized offers correspond toprice discounts associated with one or more products, customer loyaltyprogram membership, or a combination thereof.